Solved Windows 11 Retail Copies from Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg

Are retail copies of Windows 11 USB drive still write protected at the factory as in Windows 10 retail copies? Windows 11 retail copies are sold at Amazon, Best Buy, and Newegg.

Keith Weisshar said:

Are retail copies of Windows 11 USB drive still write protected at the factory as in Windows 10 retail copies? Windows 11 retail copies are sold at Best Buy, Newegg, and Amazon.

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I cannot say, but it would seem likely.

It is all a bit of a moot point, as the drive becomes out of date after the annual upgrade, and you should create an updated usb drive anyway using the media creation tool or official iso anyway

Keith Weisshar said:

Are retail copies of Windows 11 USB drive still write protected at the factory as in Windows 10 retail copies? Windows 11 retail copies are sold at Best Buy, Newegg, and Amazon.

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Yes. It prevents tampering with them.

I purchased the official Windows 11 USB from Amazon from the listing that says Brand: Microsoft and sold and shipped by Amazon.com. There are other listings but I avoided those because they could be counterfeits. It won't arrive until May 21, 2022. How can I check the package to make sure that they are not counterfeits?

Keith Weisshar said:

How can I check the package to make sure that they are not counterfeits?

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Well, if it helps, this was from 7 years ago, ordered directly from MS, the second pic shows part of the back of the key card.

Should I skip entering product key that ships with Windows 11 retail when upgrading from Windows 10?

Keith Weisshar said:

Should I skip entering product key that ships with Windows 11 retail when upgrading from Windows 10?

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If you are upgrading Windows 10 to 11 you will not be asked for a product key. If you already have an activated Windows 10, then why did you pay for a Windows 11 license? Upgrading from 10 to 11 is free.

NavyLCDR said:

If you are upgrading Windows 10 to 11 you will not be asked for a product key. If you already have an activated Windows 10, then why did you pay for a Windows 11 license? Upgrading from 10 to 11 is free.

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Windows 8 to 10 was also free.

Stigg said:

Windows 8 to 10 was also free.

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Home to Pro was never free, though, there is a price to pay for an upgrade from Home to Pro.

I decided to pay the full Pro price instead of the upgrade from Home to Pro price because there is always some churn in my stable, and I paid to have flexibility.

OP's circumstance may be different, if his circumstance is upgrade from W7/8/10 Home to W11 Home, then that would be free.

I just received my Windows 11 Pro purchase from Amazon. Why does the Windows 11 USB have dark blue cap instead of light blue? Also why is there 1.67 GB of unallocated space at the end of the drive? The USB drive reports as read-only in disk management.

Keith Weisshar said:

I just got my Windows 11 purchase from Amazon, Why does the Windows 11 USB have dark blue cap instead of light blue? Also why is there 1.67 GB of unallocated space at the end of the drive? The drive is also read-only.

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Because that is the way that Microsoft made it. Probably. Maybe. Maybe not. Or you might have a counterfeit. The question still remains, if you have an already activated Windows 10, why are you buying Windows 11?

The way I understand this thread, the OP wants to buy a retail copy of the Windows 11 to upgrade from 10 Pro(?). Why? If you already have an activated Windows 10 Pro, just download the latest W11 ISO free of charge. The USB installer is probably an outdated W11 version anyway.

This is a read-only USB backup copy of Windows 11 to keep in a safe place because if I use the ASUS SSD secure erase tool in the BIOS it will be too late to download the media creation tool because that requires an existing Windows installation with an active internet connection and that will be erased when I use the ASUS SSD secure erase tool. This is a chicken and egg problem because I won't be able to download without an existing Windows installation on the same PC and would have to use someone else's PC which is password protected and require permission from the PC owner to download the media creation tool. It also requires a dedicated USB flash drive that will not be used for other data. I only have two flash drives, the 16GB for Macrium Reflect rescue media and the 64GB for non-bootable data storage.

Keith Weisshar said:

This is a read-only USB backup copy of Windows 11 to keep in a safe place because if I use the ASUS SSD Secure Erase tool in the BIOS it will be too late to download the media creation tool because that requires an existing Windows OS installation with an active internet connection and that will be erased when I use the ASUS SSD Secure Erase tool. This is a chicken and egg problem because I won't be able to download without an existing Windows OS installation on the same PC and would have to use someone else's PC which is password protected and require permission from the PC owner to download the media creation tool. It also requires a dedicated USB flash drive that will not be used for other data.

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To each their own. Personally, every time a new major edition of Windows 10 or 11 comes out, I just use the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to create the flash drive. Export my drivers to the USB flash, and store it away in the drawer. It is a chicken and egg problem. And you can use your live chicken for free to create the egg - there is no need to buy it. But it's your money. I would rather buy a tank of gas than spend it for a flash drive I can create for free. That's in addition to the system images I create with Macrium Reflect Free that I can restore my computer from - the operative word there being free.

Not only that, you might just discover that the read only flash drive from Microsoft may not have all the drivers you need for your computer. Especially if the WiFi or network adapter driver is missing. You re-install Windows and can't connect the computer to the internet because you don't have a network driver and the only way to get the network driver is to connect to the internet. You may have spent $120+ for an egg that won't hatch a chicken.

Keith Weisshar said:

This is a read-only USB backup copy of Windows 11 to keep in a safe place because if I use the ASUS SSD secure erase tool in the BIOS it will be too late to download the media creation tool because that requires an existing Windows installation with an active internet connection and that will be erased when I use the ASUS SSD secure erase tool. This is a chicken and egg problem because I won't be able to download without an existing Windows installation on the same PC and would have to use someone else's PC which is password protected and require permission from the PC owner to download the media creation tool. It also requires a dedicated USB flash drive that will not be used for other data. I only have two flash drives, the 16GB for Macrium Reflect rescue media and the 64GB for non-bootable data storage.

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As explained earlier, you can create you own backup usb AND you should do this after each major yearly upgrade.
USB drives are so cheap now (less than £10).

Otherwise, you will end up reinstalling old OS and go through upgrading hassle.

Keith Weisshar said:

This is a read-only USB backup copy of Windows 11 to keep in a safe place because if I use the ASUS SSD secure erase tool in the BIOS it will be too late to download the media creation tool because that requires an existing Windows installation with an active internet connection and that will be erased when I use the ASUS SSD secure erase tool. This is a chicken and egg problem because I won't be able to download without an existing Windows installation on the same PC and would have to use someone else's PC which is password protected and require permission from the PC owner to download the media creation tool. It also requires a dedicated USB flash drive that will not be used for other data. I only have two flash drives, the 16GB for Macrium Reflect rescue media and the 64GB for non-bootable data storage.

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You don't need to buy. You can create your own. And there are so many different easy ways to do a a recovery flash drive for FREE. Your macrium rescue media is enough. You just need to create a backup image from your existing installation and you are good to go. Even if your Windows OS drive is completely erased, you can restore it back with the Macrium rescue media and the backup image stored in a USB flashdrive of external drive. And you won't have to reinstall your software. It's like nothing happened after restoring it.

Upgrading will no longer create new partitions since Windows 11 setup places the recovery partition at the end of the drive rather than at the beginning of the drive.

Keith Weisshar said:

Upgrading will no longer create new partitions since it Windows 11 and Windows 10 v2004 and later use a new partition layout that will resize the Windows partition on partition 3 and delete and recreate a new recovery partition on partition 4.

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What does it have to do with buying a retail copy of Windows 11?

None, it's just one PC per license for new custom PC build.

Everything posted here about what/where/how to buy Win 11 USBs simply screams fake/counterfeit/etc. e.g. Amazon is simply a reseller, you buy through Amazon, not from. A label stating "Brand : Microsoft" is absolutely no guarantee of authenticity and Amazon have absolutely no responsibility to assure that the reseller is genuine.

Caveat emptor.